New Delhi:Looking for their first win on their UK tour, India face England in the fourth T20I of the five-match series at the County Ground in Bristol on Thursday, July 9. India's new T20 cycle has got off to the most unwanted beginning. For the first time, the Men in Blue find themselves winless in five straight T20I matches, which has raised serious question marks on them.
India haven’t made many changes to their Playing XIs in England but one big change which drew criticism was the dropping of Sanju Samson from the Playing XI for the last two T20Is. He missed out on the
Indian batting under the scannerThere is nothing that is under more microscope than India’s batting. One of the biggest reasons for the recent decline has been that the celebrated power-hitters have often failed to adapt to the conditions and situations in the UK. The Shreyas Iyer-led side came under criticism after the 2-0 defeat in Ireland and it continued in England where they failed to post above-par totals and couldn’t defend the 190 they put up in the second match.
In the third match, Iyer hammered the Indian batting, bowling out the defending T20 champions for a mere 76, their biggest T20 loss of 125 runs.
Will Samson get a look in?The debate might be on but it doesn't look like Samson will get a look in for this match, at least over Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. Abhishek Sharma is one of the rare performers in the UK, and would surely open. And even though he was an early departure, Sooryavanshi will be given a longer rope considering he is very young.
If Samson does get a look-in it will be at the expense of either Ishan Kishan or Tilak Varma, neither of whom have set the world on fire in the UK. Even if the CSK all-rounder hammered a 21-ball 42 in the first T20I in England that was abandoned, there could be an argument for India to take out Shivam Dube for Suryansh Shedge.
What about the bowlers?There may not be many changes in bowling apart from maybe Axar Patel and Washington Sundar switching places. Axar has not done that well in the UK, taking only four wickets in the four innings he bowled and not managing to get past 15 even once in five innings.
Harshit Rana had added responsibility with the bat, with a one-off 21 in Ireland, but has mostly impressed with the ball. Prince Yadav was back in the Playing XI for the third T20I and was deadly, picking up 2/30, while Arshdeep Singh has largely been doing his job well too.
India's Probable Playing XI:Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ishan Kishan/Sanju Samson (wk), Shreyas Iyer (capt), Tilak Varma/Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel/Washington Sundar, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Prince Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy
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